Method of preparing a rotary gravure tone and line positive



J. M. CROWE.

METHOD OF PREPARING A ROTARY GRAVURE TONE AND LINE POSITIVE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 20. 1921.

1A28fi09, Patented. Sept. 5, 19220.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

John Doe Prom/new lam/er wfme. Jo/eph M Won e ATTE/VEV 1. M. CROWE.

METHOD OF PREPARING A ROTARY GRAVURE TOME AND LINE POSITIVE.

APPLlCATION FILED APR. 20. 1921.

Patented Sept. 5, 1922.4

3 SH E HTS-SHEET 2- J. M. CROWE.

METHOD OF PREPARING A ROTARY GRAVURE TONE A ND LINE POSITIVE.

APPLICATION FILED APR 20. I921.

LQQSJQUQ, Patent/swept. 5, 1922..

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

tamed Sept. 5, 1922.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH M. CROWE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

METHOD OF PREPARING A ROTARY GRAVURE TONE END LINE POSITIVE.

Application filed April 20, 1921.

To a whom it may camera:

Be it known that I, Josnrrr M. Cnown, a citizen of the United States,residing at how York cit borough of Brooklyn, in the county 0 Kings andState of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Method ofPreparing a Rotary Gravure Tone and Line Positive, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention is a method of making.

positives for use in rotary .gravure and machine gravure printing,and-while adapted for general application, will be described, for thepurpose of illustration in connection with the preparation of a tone andline positive to be used in connection with the printing of a page ofanewspaper gravure section.

In the process now in general use, the first step is for an artist todraw a design of the page in pen and ink lines or stipple and thisdesign is known as the artists layout. It usually embodies a suitableline border and at suitable spacing interiorly of the border, spaces areindicated by outlines, wherein the artist intends the respective tonepictures to be positioned. These spaces may be of different size andshape according to the artists idea of what will best show the tonepictures to advantage. Adjacent each space thus delineated are captionsand descriptive tyne matter.

This artists layout of the page is first given to a hotographer whoImakes a wet plate-negative and from this negative produces a wet platepositive. The wet plate positive is then coated with a rubber solutionwhich is allowed to dry and is thereafter further coated with acollodion solution.

In the meantime, the artists layout has been turned over to a draftsman,who makes a tracing of the outlines of the spaces in which the tonepictures are to be inserted. Thereafter a sheet of glass ofsubstantially the same size as the page to be printed is laid over thetracing and all parts of the glass except the spaces left for the tonepictures are opaqued out by coating the glass with a suitableopaquesubstance.

At the same time as this operation is progressing, the photographermakes photographic tone negatives of the pictures to be inserted in theblank spaces as called for by the layout. These tone negatives are madeon a photographic film by the dry process Serial No. 462,906.

and are sent to the layout man who by this time has completed theopaquing operation on the glass. The layout man takes the film tonenegatives and very carefully trims them to the same size and shape asthe respectlve blank spaces into which they are adapted to be positionedand thereafter insertssuch film. negatives into such spaces and securesthem 1n position by means of glue and adhesive tape.

The glass plate with the film negatives secured thereto is now returnedto the photographer, who copies the same either by contact in a vacuumframe or by transmitted llght in a camera, the result being a filmpositive of the tone parts of the page, with *all the rest of the pageexcept the tone parts thereof blank.

- The back of the tone ositive thus formed is now scraped of its coat ofgelatine to permit the wet plate positive of the layout, made in themanner hereinbefore described, to be stripped thereon. 'Lhe wet platepositive of the layout is then placed in a bath of acetic. acid whichrenders it possible to remove the same from the glass support and stripit on to the back of the tone positive. This results in the making of atone positive which may be transferred to the cylinder for printing bythe well known carbon printing process.

The foregoing process of preparin tone line positives is the oneuniversallv employed at the present time and it is well known by thoseskilled in the art that the process is expensive, lengthy andpractically every step thereof must be accomplished by men of unusualskill.

The object of the present invention is to greatly simplify the processof making tone and line positives for the purpose specified, greatlyminimize the amount of work and time expended and also to considerablydecrease the cost-of such positives.

This increase in efficiency and marked reduction in cost are obtained bythe process hereinafter fully and comprehensively set forth.

Features of the invention, other than those specified, will be apparentfrom the hereinafter detailed descrlption and claims, when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The accompanying drawin s illustrate one practical embodiment of t 1einvention,

.the finished page to occupy such spaces.

but the construction therein shown is to be understood as illustrative,only, and not as defining the limits of the invention.

Figure 1 illustrates the artists layout. Figure 2 shows a fragmentalpart of a layout negative with tone picture negatives associatedtherewith as employed in carrying out the present invention; and, I

Figure 3 shows the finished picture produced by the method of thisinvention.

In practising the method of this invention, I start with the artistslayout which is shown in Figure 1 of the drawings. Thislayout may have aborder extending entirely around it, but in the drawings, this border isomitted. The layout includes a number of indicated spaces enclosed inpen and ink lines 10 and adjacent each space thus delineated aresuitable descriptive matter and captions so as to identify therespective pictures adapted in s a first step of the process, an innerborder 11 is drawn within each space 10, and, in practice, this may bedrawn with pen and ink for any convenient distance from the outlines ofthe space, such for example as g; of an inch. The purpose of this innerborder formed by the lines 11 is to permit a oneeighth inch wide marginbetween the line border 10 and the tone insert. It also permits of morelatitude in the subsequent fitting of the tone inserts into the layout.

The artists layout of the page as shown in Fig. 1, is now photographedby the wet plate process to an exact size of the finished page toprovide a wet plate negative. This wet plate negative is employed as atrue layout and therein consists the first marked improvement in theprocess of this invention since themaking of a tracing and the formingof the opaque glass is thereby entirely dispensed with.

This wet plate negative is now coated with any suitable strippingsolution, such for, example, as by coating it with rubber and when dryapplying a second coating of collodion solution which may be appliedbroadcast over the negative.

This having been accomplished, a sharp knife is caused to .cut along thelines 11 forming the inner border of each space 10 and thereafter thelayout negative is placed in an acetic acid bath which permits of theremoval of the opaque film contained within the inner border 11 of eachspace 10. This procedure obviates the necessity of making a layout byhand, as the negative of the layout is sufliciently dense to preventlight from passing through the same except through the transparent linescorresponding to the artists layout of the page.

After washing and drying, this negative layout with the transparentspaces as described, is sent to the layout man. In the meantime, thenegatives of the tone inserts are made on a photographic film and sentto the layout man, who inserts these tone negatives into the properspaces on the lay out negative, fastens them in place by glue orotherwise or holding them in position by a cover glass laid over thelayout negative and fastened thereto by gum tape or in any othersuitable manner.

A fragmentary part of the negative layout with the inserted tone filmsisshown in Figure 2, wherein the films bear the reference character 12. Itwill be noted from this view that in inserting the negatives 12 with inthe inner transparent space of the tone negative that the layout manneed not exercise the greatest care in the cutting and fitting of thefilm since the opaque space be tween the outer and inner borders 10 and11 permits of slight latitude in the cutting operation. This is clearlyshown in Figure 2.

The negative layout with inserted tone negatives as shown in Figure 2 isnow photographed either by contact printing in a vacuum frame or bytransmitted light in a camera to produce a positive, in which isphotographically combined the lines of the artists design, the printedcaptions, and the tone pictures. This combination tone and line positiveis now ready to be transferred to the printing cylinder by any wellknown method such as by carbon printing.

The picture which is finally printed by the printing cylinder is shownin Figure 3 of the drawings and from this showing it will be apparentthat through the method of this invention the tone pictures and thelines of the letters of the artists layout have been combined into afinished picture.

It will be apparent from the foregoing detailed description of theprocess of this invention that by carrying out the operations described,many steps of the prior and universally employed process are dispensedwith. That is to say, the making of a tracing and layout on glass isunnecessary, nor is the making of a wet plate positive of the artistslayout required. By eliminating this wet plate positive of the artist'slayout, the time consuming steps of coating the same with rubber andcollodion solutions and the preparing of the glass for a wet platephotograph are rendered unnecessary. Furthermore, the operation ofscraping the gelatine from the back of the tone positive and thesubsequent delicate stripping of the wet plate positive on to the backof the tone positive are avoided. Aside from these considerations, thecost of preparing the finished article is materially reduced, due toelimination of the cost and of chemicals in preparing the wet platepositive. The cost of glass of which there is considerable breakage, thecost of preparing the plates for stripping and the cost of rubber andcollodion for carrying out these several operations which under thepresent invention are rendered unnecessary. Moreover, the time elementis materially reduced and the page may be conditioned to go to pressmuch more expeditiously than heretofore.

A very important feature of this invention resides in the absoluteaccuracy of register which may be obtained by using a negative of thelayout as an actual layout, since the human element of accumulated erroris not involved.

The invention has been particularly described in connection withpreparing a combined tone and line positive for a newspaper page, whichis usually printed on a rotary cylinder. It will be understood, however,that this method is equally applicable to all work i in rotary andmachine gravure printing where line and tone pictures are used together.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is: s

1. The herein described method of making combined line and tonepositives which consists in making a suitable layout, photographicallyproducing a negative from such layout, then removing part of theemulsionof the negative torender a part of such negative transparent, thenbringing another negative into registration with the transparent portionthus formed, and thereafter employing the composite negative thus madeto produce a positive.

2. The herein described method of making combined line and tonepositives which consists in making a suitable layout in black and whiteand having one or more spaces designated thereon for a picture anddescriptive matter relative to such picture or pictures, directlyphotographing the layout to produce a line negative, thereafterstripping the indicated spaces of the negative, then bringing a secondnegative into registration with each transparent space and employingthis composite negative to produce a combined line and tone positive.

3. The herein described method of making combined line and tonepositives which consists in photographing a black and white line drawingto produce a line negative, then strip-ping a portion of such negativeto render the stripped portion transparent, then bringing atone negativeinto registration with the transparent portion of the line strippingthis portion of the negative to render such part of the negativetransparent, making photographic film negative of a tone picture, thencutting the film negative to substantially the size and shape of thetransparent portion of the wet plate negative, then bringing the filmnegative into registration with such transparent portion, and employingthe composite negative thus formed to make a combined line and tonepositive.

5. The herein described method of making combined line and tonepositives which consists in making a suitable layout with a space for atone insert bordered by two spaced lines, photographing this layout toproduce a line negative, then stripping a portion of the line negativeto render the space bordered by the inside lines transparent, thenbringin the tone negative into registration with t e transparent portionof the line negative with the ed es of the tone negative positionedbetween t e portions of the line negative corresponding to said innerand outer border lines, and then employing the composite tone and linenegative thus produced to'make a composite tone and line positive. I

6. The herein described method of making combined line and tonepositives which consists in employing a negative as a true layout foruse in producing a composite line and tone positive.

7. The herein described method of making combined tone and linepositives which consists in combining a line negative and tone negative,and employing such combined negative for the production of a combinedline and tone positive.

In testimony whereof, I have signed the foregoing specification.

' JOSEPH M. GROWE.

